Shill or no shill?

wybrit

While doing some "market research" I came across this auction for six common proof sets (worth $60-$100, maybe).

You decide.

Link

farthing

No, I just think the seller got lucky. The seller appears to be the representitive of an office of the state of Illinois. Probably selling off unclaimed items.

The top bidder is a newbie from England, the other bidder does not appear to have won many items. A shill will end up winning a number of auctions trying to coax the last bid possible out of the rube.

Aethelred

Does look a bit odd, but if I were betting I go with no shill.

tlhoy

Why aren't these two bidding on my auctions?

Aethelred

<< <i>Why aren't these two bidding on my auctions? >>



I ask myself that question all the time!

hookedoncoins

<< <i>

<< <i>Why aren't these two bidding on my auctions? >>



I ask myself that question all the time! >>



Same here. Less than a year ago I had 7 or 8 british proof sets on eBay and they didn't bring near that much.

0john0

Shill bidding is the deliberate use of secondary registrations, aliases, family members, friends, or associates to artificially drive up the bid price of an item. (This is also known as "bid padding.")

neither of these bids have a feedback or bidding history from this seller. So, probably not a shill.

TheShaman10

If this 'lindenjohn' fellow isn't a shill bidder, why did he constantly up his bid like that? Doesn't make good sense.

SMS

I would say definite shill! amximperial has been registered for about 4 years with about 7 total wins. Looking at his bidding activity (Shill activity) you'll see that amximperial is almost exclusively a jkarras bidder with no wins whatsoever! If this were a real independant bidder, you would definitely see a more robust bidding log. Especially since this bidder has never won anything from the seller, there is no buyer/seller faithfulness involved where amximperial should be bidding only on jkarras' items and almost nobody elses. I've looked into this one a long time ago already and discovered this, but eBay will do nothing of it and officially claims that they are not the "same owner or party of owners"....like I would trust eBay anyway seeing as my wife just recently started and got screwed and tricked into a feedback removal and eBay placed absolutely no indication on the feedback record of retraction of feedback on the seller, and the seller's negatives for the month went down by 17 points with no indication of feedback retractions...negatives just magically dissappeared (the annual negative rate did not change, so no, it was not because a new month turned over...the negatives just dissappeared). It's a good idea to take the extra few minutes and do a bidder search on any suspected activity and trust very little of what eBay may have to say about it. They make money from sellers, not buyers....buyers are third world citizens to them.